Break On Through To The Other Side
by rockerchik777
Summary: A mass tragedy causes secrets to come out about School of Rock that would have stayed better as secrets. Okay, the summary totally sucks, but please just read it, it's better than it sounds!
1. First Big Case

-Here's my newest fic, it's a little bit weird, not in a sense like it's supernatural, it's just kind of...weird. Okay, I know that was really confusing, but just read the story!-

A band meeting had been called and so the band had all met in the living room of their huge upstate New York mansion. The person who called the meeting was making sure that everyone had a cup of Dr. Pepper. Katie wasn't thirsty, but she took her cup anyway. The person who had called the meeting apparently had nothing to say, but watched as the rest of the band downed their sodas and left the room.

Just a minute after receiving her soda, Katie was one of three people left in the room. The other two people were Freddy and the person who'd called the meeting. The person who'd called the meeting fixed themselves a soda while Katie took her first sip. Freddy collapsed onto the sofa. Katie looked at him, concerned, and went over to him.

"Too much alcohol," the person said, laughing. Katie wasn't so sure. Freddy didn't look too good. She checked his pulse and found that there was no pulse. Realizing that the band had been poisoned, Katie looked at the person, disbelieving. But she knew that there was little time for her, and she needed to make sure that people knew who had done this.

Grabbing a pencil and paper, Katie started writing. Her hands were shaking from fear and the poison. "What are you writing?" the person yelled, running over. After the person had scanned the paper they seemed satisfied that it was nothing damaging.

Katie's hands were shaking even more and she was finding it difficult to breathe. She knew that her life was almost over and quickly said a prayer, begging for forgiveness from God, and then she passed. The person smirked and left the room, dragging the bodies of the band into the living room and lining them up, making sure each of them was holding their cup.

When the person was done, they took a sip of their soda and laid down on the carpet of the living room, smiling as the poison overtook them. (a/n sorry about calling the person "the person", but don't want to give it away!!!)

---

The next morning, at 5 A M, on the island of Manhattan, Claire Owens' phone rang. "Hello?" she answered groggily.

"Claire? We've got a case for you. This is a big case, but you've been doing well in assisting on other cases, so I decided to give you this. Now before I give you details, tell me this: Are you okay with a huge case?"

Hearing her boss' voice, Claire perked up. Eager to get her own case, she said quickly, "I'm okay with it. Now what are the details?"

"I'll tell you on your way to the scene. Be in your car in five minutes, I'll call your cell and tell you everything."

Claire hopped out of bed quickly and threw on jeans and a School of Rock shirt. All notions of sleep had left her. She was too excited for sleep. She'd been working as a forensic detective for two years, and now she was finally getting her own case. She didn't have time to take a shower so she pulled her short brown hair back into a ponytail. Claire took a quick mirror check, then ran down the stairs of her apartment building and got into her Mini Coup. Just as she started the ignition, her cell phone rang.

"Claire? Here's the address." Her boss gave her an address to a house in upstate New York. "And now I'll give you the details. Have you ever heard of the band School of Rock?"

"Heard of them? They've been my favorite band since I was in fourth grade, when they made their debut at the Battle of the Bands! They're still together, you know! Why do you ask?"

"Well, uh, they're not together anymore. This morning, a friend of the band's, a Miss Mullins, came to visit their mansion. No one answered the door, but it was open, so she went in. She found every single band member dead on the living room floor, according to her story. She may have been responsible for the deaths, we haven't done autopsies yet. That will all be up to you. Oh, I gotta go. See you soon!"

Claire hung up and shook her head. Her favorite band was dead, every single last one of them. She slid a CD into her CD player, School of Rock's debut album. Not long after, she pulled up at a huge mansion, School of Rock's mansion. The gates opened for her car and Claire got prepared to see her favorite band, dead.

Inside the mansion, Claire slipped on some gloves and went into the living room. The School of Rock was laying there, a cup in every member's hand. Claire walked by each person, identifying the band and crew. Several other forensic detectives were waiting for her to tell them to do something. "I want autopsies performed!" she barked.

The other detectives went to work and quickly cleared the room of the bodies. "The autopsy results should be in by the end of the day," said the last detective as he left the room. Claire walked around the room, thinking. Miss Mullins had already been interviewed. The autopsies would determine whether or not she would still be a suspect.

On a coffee table was a piece of paper and a pencil. With her gloved hands, Claire picked up the paper. It had seven words on it: Break on Through to the Other Side. Claire recognized the words as the title a song by The Doors, but didn't see the paper as being important. Nevertheless, she put the paper in a plastic bag labeled: EVIDENCE.

Sitting on the sofa, she waited, because she could do nothing until the autopsy results were in.

-Do you like it? I know it's weird, the fact that all the band members are dead, but please tell me if you like it!-


	2. Katie's Room

-Thanks to my reviewers, I'm glad you like this story! And a note to Swimmerkitti- Yes, Claire isn't a Mary Sue, but how could she be if the band is dead? Sorry, random thought of mine!-

Claire sat on the sofa for a total of five minutes before she was totally and completely bored. The whole house had been photographed already, and the autopsy results wouldn't be in until night time. With nothing better to do, she slipped on a pair of gloves and decided to check out some other rooms.

She decided to start at the top of the house and make her way down. There appeared to be four stories, so this exploring would take awhile. On the top floor were bedrooms, eight total. Claire started at the first one, opening up the door to find one of the messiest rooms she'd ever seen.

Posters lined the walls so that no wall was showing anywhere. Papers were falling off desks and covering the floor. The bed was unmade, and it looked like it hadn't been made for over a week. Three basses were scattered on the floor amidst the clutter. Judging from the instruments, Claire had found Katie's room.

She took extensive pictures of the room, capturing every detail. Being a bit of a neat freak, Claire then started cleaning the room. She made the bed, put the basses in their stands, and then looked at the overwhelming mass of papers. Not knowing where to start, she sat on the floor and grabbed all the papers, making neat stacks. It must've taken her a good hour to get all the paper stacked, and now she was going to read every single sheet. There could be something important amidst the mess.

Many of the papers had notes to self on them, like 'do laundry'. Some had song lyrics written on them. Claire threw away the notes, but kept the lyrics. She would check them later on for any hints of anger toward anybody in the band. That anger could be enough to make Katie a posthumous suspect. Stop, you're going to fast, Claire told herself. You don't even have the autopsy results back.

With the lyric sheets neatly stacked in an evidence bag, the only task left was the desks. There were two of them, and they looked rather full. Claire sighed to herself and opened a drawer. Surprisingly, there was hardly anything in it. Just a few old sticky notes. The sticky notes had no worth or value to the case, so Claire threw them out. The next drawer was jam packed with more paper, which Claire sorted carefully, loading more sheets into the evidence bag and throwing the rest away.

The first desk was finished, and the second was waiting. The first drawer of the second desk yielded more papers, papers that Claire sorted through. But the final drawer had only one thing in it: a journal. The journal was really only a notebook, but it said in handwritten letters: KATIE'S JOURNAL!!! There was a picture of the band pasted onto the front cover. Claire was about to open the journal and start reading when her ethics kicked in. Should she really be reading the journal of somebody else? Reasoning with herself, she decided it was okay since Katie was dead and just one person reading it wouldn't hurt anybody.

Claire opened the notebook and flipped through several pages that said things like 'For Katie's Eyes ONLY!'. Ignoring them, Claire reached the first page of the journal. It was dated from six months before. Good, Claire thought, it's recent, so there could be clues in it. Just as she started to read, the doorbell to the house rang. She jumped and checked her watch. It was already six in the evening. She hadn't realized how late it was.

She ran to the elevator that conveniently transported her between the floors. However, it was a slow elevator, and before Claire had even reached the third floor she was impatient. She saw a button that said 'Freddy's Fast Button'. She pushed it and felt the elevator drop at such a velocity that her stomach flipped. But she had reached the first floor.

Her back up detectives had the results of the autopsy ready for her. They read like this for each member of the band: Estimated time of death, 5 P M yesterday. Cause of death, arsenic poisoning.

There was more writing about details in the deaths, but Claire didn't read it. Her cell phone started chirping, so she answered it.

"Claire!" It was her boss again. "Did you get the autopsy reports?"

"Yeah I got them."

"Well? What's your theory? Personally, mine is a mass suicide."

"Um, well, I haven't had time yet to search the whole house. Once I'm done with that I can start developing a theory."

"Okay, your case, you do what you want. We let Mullins off the hook, the security tapes don't show anyone entering the house around five. So it's gotta be either a suicide or a poisoning."

"Yeah. Well, I should get back to work."

"Okay, bye."

"Bye." Claire hung up and took the elevator back up to Katie's room. She sat on the bed and looked at the posters hanging on the wall. Debbie Harry, signed. The Who, signed by Pete, Roger, and John. The Beatles, signed by Ringo and Paul. Every single poster was signed. Claire found herself in envy of what a dead person had. Shaking the thoughts from her head, she opened the journal.

At the first page, she started reading.

_This is my first entry in this new journal, since my old one got completely filled up. Today Freddy was giving me some really mean looks. He's still not over it. I guess I wouldn't be too, if it had happened to me. But really, he needs to get over it. I just don't have any feelings towards him anymore._

Claire wondered what had caused the rift between Freddy and Katie, and kept on reading.

_It's a little weird, the fact that I've been married and divorced when I'm only 24._

Claire's eyes widened. She hadn't known that any of the band members had ever been married.

_I guess we took it too quickly. Freddy and I got together fast, and then we got hitched. No one in the band even knows about it. They thought we were just dating for the whole past year and that we broke up. They don't know the truth: that we were married. I think Freddy was serious about it. But I wasn't._

I mean come on, we're only 24! I can't be expected to stay with somebody that long! Maybe I have relationship problems. But that doesn't matter. What matters is that I divorced Freddy, and now he's pissed. He might even tell people that we were married! That would ruin everything. I don't really know why, but it would. Just the thought of everyone staring at me as Freddy blurts out that we were married gives me the chills. I can just see the look on Summer's face.

That 'What the hell were you thinking, now you're on probation from the band' look. Man I hate her! We were sort of friends in the beginning, when the music brought us together. But that was a long time ago. Now we're just enemies. I better go and try to talk to Freddy. He better not spill this secret.

-Katie

Claire let the shock in. She was the only person now that knew about the marriage. Marriage papers and divorce papers would have to be found. The divorce could have been a cause for enmity, which might have triggered either Katie or Freddy to poison everyone and themselves before thinking.

Now to find those marriage papers. They weren't in Katie's room, it had been checked. They had to be in Freddy's room. Claire walked out of Katie's room and started looking for Freddy's room. The door across from Katie's room had 'Freddy' painted on it, along with an anarchy symbol. Claire opened the door and sighed as she saw more clutter than there had been in Katie's room.

-REVIEW!!!!-


	3. More Exploration

-I'd like to thank all my reviewers for being so entirely awesome! Also, if you are a Napoleon Dynamite fan, I just wrote a Napoleon Dynamite fic, if you want to check it out.-

Freddy's room was extremely messy, but luckily there were hardly any papers littering the floor. Mostly clothes, heaped anywhere and everywhere. Clothes on the desk, clothes on the bed, clothes under the bed, clothes in the closet, clothes everywhere. Claire put on her gloves and started folding the clothes. When she finished she went to put them in the drawers, only to find that the drawers were completely empty.

It appeared that Freddy had been incapable of putting things away. Claire made the bed, which was unmade, and then went to check out the desk. In the first drawer were several copies of Freddy's first and only solo album, _Lewd, Crude, and Obnoxious_. Claire had listened to the album before. It had sounded more like a drinking party caught on tape than an album. Under the CDs were a few papers.

Most of the papers were blank, or had one word written on them. Claire went on to the next drawer, hoping to find marriage and divorce papers. They weren't there. The only thing in the drawer was three tapes. Claire popped one into a VCR to see Freddy and two girls tumbling around in a bed. She quickly turned the tape off. "What a great help you've been, Freddy," she said to herself.

The marriage and divorce papers couldn't have just disappeared. They had to be somewhere. Claire went to check Katie's room again, although she thought she'd been pretty extensive in her search. With a sudden thought, Claire opened the drawer which had been nearly empty; maybe she had missed something.

There was nothing in the drawer. Frustrated, Claire slammed her fist down into the drawer, because without those papers no marriage could be proven. She was surprised when the bottom of the drawer gave way. A secret compartment was in the bottom of the drawer, and in that secret compartment were both the marriage and divorce papers. Claire smiled triumphantly and bagged the papers as evidence.

Moving on, Claire found Summer's room next. It was immaculate, with everything in it's perfect place. Claire smiled with relief that she wouldn't have to clean another room. There was a filing cabinet in the room and one desk. Claire walked over to the filing cabinet first. It was locked. Claire was exasperated for a moment, but then remembered her lock pick. It was something that forensic detectives needed often. She pulled the lock pick out and picked the lock quickly.

Inside the cabinet were files labeled 'Credit Card Expenses'. Receipts were stacked carefully according to purpose. Claire went through every one of them, finding nothing out of the ordinary, until she came to a section titled 'Miscellaneous'. There was only one receipt in there. Claire pulled it out and stared at it, disbelieving. The receipt was from an abortion clinic. The receipt was quickly put into an evidence bag, and Claire moved on to the next files, still shocked that perfect Summer had had an abortion.

The rest of the files contained information on gigs that the band had played, along with information concerning albums and album sales. Claire walked over to the desk. Inside was a date book. Flipping through it's pages, Claire saw one day with the label 'ABORTION'. She put the book in the bag with the receipt. There was also a journal, but nothing was written in it. The other drawer had absolutely nothing in it.

Feeling extremely tired, Claire went downstairs. She asked her back up crew to search as many rooms as they could that night, and inform her in the morning of what they had found. Before she went to sleep, Claire decided to read some more from Katie's journal.

_Freddy was mad when I talked to him, but he agreed not to tell about the whole marriage thing. I hid the papers in my room, so that no one will find them. Today we all jammed and it was pretty fun. But Summer wasn't there. Which is weird, because Summer is always there, yelling at us._

It's a mystery that I don't care about, so I'm not really going to look into it. So anyways we were jamming today and it was great. We haven't jammed in a while. Not since the last tour. Zack and Dewey have been working on material for the new album, but I don't think it's going very well. Their relationship has stretched pretty thin.

Dewey wants everything to be all hard rock, all the time. And Zack wants there to be some softer, more emotional songs. Not that Zack doesn't like hard rock. He does. But everyone needs a break from it after a little while. So Zack's fed up and has started working on his own solo album. It'll probably do well since he's a good songwriter. Freddy's album was, well...questionable in quality.

So since this little rift between Dewey and Zack is starting to get bigger, I've been writing some songs. Maybe the band will even use them.

It was hilarious today because Alicia was so

The writing stopped there and started up again after a few lines.

_While we jammed we played some covers, and everyone started brushing up. it's been a while since I've seriously played the bass, so I was surprised when I nailed The Real Me. Guess I'm just talented!_

-Katie

Claire felt her eyes drooping and let the sleep overcome her. It was late and she drifted off to sleep right away, the journal clasped in her gloved hands as she lay on the sofa in the living room.

Meanwhile her back up detectives were busy searching the rooms of the rest of the band. They worked feverishly, hoping to get done as quickly as possible so that they too could go to bed. They put things into evidence bags so that Claire could study them when she got up. When they finally finished, they went ot bed for a non satisfying four hours of sleep.

-Review, please please please!!!-


	4. Interesting Findings

-Sorry about the wait for this chapter, it's been like forever since I updated. Like I said, I'm really sorry. But I've had school work. But luckily, I've now worked out almost all the details of this story.-

Shafts of sunlight brightened the living room of the beautiful upstate New York mansion. Claire woke up to find her staff of back up detectives sitting at a table, eating breakfast tiredly. One of them, John, saw her waking up and walked over to her, holding several bags.

"These are the bags of evidence that we found. There really wasn't too much in most of the rooms, a couple sheets of paper that seemed important, and they're all in here. But one of the things that we did find was an enormous stash of heroin in the room of Alicia Smith. We didn't get to check Zack Mooneyham or Dewey Finn's rooms, we were just too tired. Sorry." John smiled weakly as he handed Claire the bags, then returned to his seat.

Claire took the bags and quickly found the heroin. The bag had not only the heroin in it, but needles too. Claire couldn't imagine the cute little smart ass back up singer doing drugs, but she was quickly learning that with the School of Rock, nothing was as it had first seemed.

She took the elevator up to the second story after she freshened up, and opened the door to Zack's room. Claire was happy to see that Zack had been extremely organized, with a whole filing cabinet titled, 'Lyrics and Songs'. She opened the unlocked filing cabinet and found that it was surprisingly spare. She read the lyrics and found that most were about rocking out. Apparently that was pretty important to Zack.

Lining the walls were posters and pictures of Zack with the band and with rock gods like Gene Simmons. There were five guitars sitting in their stands. Claire inspected them carefully. A 1968 Gibson SG, just like the one that Pete Townshend played at Woodstock. A Gibson Flying V, probably the same guitar that he had used at his first performance. A Fender, a Stratocaster, another Fender. All the guitars were in top condition.

Claire walked around the neat room. It was pretty basic, a bed, a chair and desk. The desk was empty. It seemed strange to Claire that everything in the room was empty. It didn't look like anyone even lived there. Or had lived there. There was also a dresser drawer that had very few clothes in it. At one side of the room were two doors.

Claire opened the first door and found a mini recording studio. There was a bass and a drum set inside, along with a couple tapes which Claire put into an evidence bag. She opened the other door and walked into a large closet that was totally empty. There were three large duffel bags that looked full sitting on the floor. Claire opened them to find clothes, CDs, a stereo, a record player, and albums, among other things. On top of the third duffel bag was a US Airways ticket.

She pulled the ticket out and looked at it. It was a one way ticket to Los Angeles. There was a letter folded up with the ticket. It read: _Zack, you'll make a bloody great guest on me show when your solo album comes out. Indie 103 will be happy to have you on the show. It's wicked that you're moving to L. A. Just call me whenever you're about to drop in, you know me number! -Steve Jones_.

Claire knew that the name Steve Jones sounded familiar. She racked her brain, trying to remember how she knew the name. Oh yeah! It was the guitarist from the Sex Pistols. He had gotten his own radio show on Indie 103.1, the radio station in Los Angeles. So what was the whole letter about? Claire decided to bag the ticket and search for answers later. She needed to finish up her search, then she could piece together the clues.

She crossed the hall and found Dewey's room. It had tons of Led Zeppelin stuff all over it. Led Zeppelin sheets and bed covers, Led Zeppelin posters, Led Zeppelin CDs and records, Led Zeppelin shirts, everything Led Zeppelin. "Think he liked Led Zeppelin?" Claire muttered to herself. The room had no bed, just a mattress thrown onto the floor with blankets piled on top of it.

Apparently Dewey hadn't believed in folding clothes or putting them away, because there were no dresser drawers and clothes were scattered everywhere. There weren't any sheets of lyrics anywhere, and from what Claire had heard, Dewey just made up lyrics from the top of his head. Beer bottles littered the floor beside the mattress, and more were scattered all over the room.

The only thing that was neat and in order was Dewey's music collection. There were two large shelves, one for records, one for CDs. Each was perfectly organized and in alphabetical order. A record player was sitting next to the shelf holding albums, and a stereo was next to the CDs. On a much smaller shelf were 45's and a portable 45 player.

There was a bathroom that had a toothbrush, but no toothpaste to go along with it. There was a toilet and a shower, but besides that, the bathroom was empty. Dewey's room had proved to be totally and completely useless. Claire sighed and took the elevator back down to the living room so she could completely look over all the evidence. Which meant she was going to need to finish reading Katie's journal.

She opened it up but just as she was about to start reading, the doorbell rang. She jumped up to get it, wondering who it could be. Standing at the door was a reporter and news crew. "I'm not talking!" Claire yelled and slammed the door in their faces. She was stressed out and didn't want to talk to any reporters right now.

Once again she opened the journal.

__

Freddy promised not to tell, but I swear today he almost told. It's like he can never keep his damn mouth shut! So anyways I've been working on some songs, and I think some of them are pretty good. Maybe they're even good enough to make the new album. I'm going to show them to Dewey tomorrow.

On the day after tomorrow we're going to California to do a few promotional gigs for some radio stations. We'll be there for two weeks, and I'm really excited because I've never been to California. Well, I've been to California, but I've never actually left my hotel room except for gigs, so this time I'll get to explore. We're going to some major cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco. It's going to be kick ass!

Zack and Dewey are avoiding each other. Hopefully the trip will bring them back together, and everything will be normal again.

-Katie

Claire flipped the page. The next entry was one month after the previous one.

_I haven't written in so long because I forgot my journal when we went to California, and then I forgot where I put it and then I found it today. So here's what has happened._

California was great! We got to do a ton of fun stuff, and all the gigs were great! But the best was one that we did for a Los Angeles station, Indie 103.1. Steve Jones, the guitarist from the Sex Pistols, was there because he has a talk show on the station. It was awesome to talk to him, and he and Zack really hit it off. Unfortunately, the trip didn't bring Zack and Dewey closer.

They avoided each other just like they'd been doing at home. So they're not collaborating anymore. Which reminds me! Dewey liked a couple of my songs, and they're probably going on the album! I did a quick recording in Zack's little recording studio, just for practice. Zack played guitar and drums, because he learned all the instruments so that he could write songs all by himself.

Anyways, I sang and I sounded pretty good! We really need a girl singing in the band, because not everything is about the guys. Oh crap, it's time for dinner!

-Katie

Claire read on and on, learning about Katie's recordings, but there was nothing that could be classified as evidence. That is, until she reached the entries starting a week before the deaths. Things started to climax there.

-Review, please please please!!! Hope you liked this chapter, it was pretty long by my standards!-


	5. Last Pages

-I am pretty angry right now because of the lack of reviews I got for my last chapter. I only got 3! It's not that I'm hungry for reviews, it's just that I work pretty hard on writing stories, and when no one responds, I get a little upset. So in this case, since no one is reading this story, I will discontinue it if I don't get what I consider a satisfactory amount of reviews. I just want to know that I'm not wasting my time writing these stories just to get no reviews, while other stories get 100's of reviews. So please, when you read a story of mine, give me some feedback on it.-

Claire was almost done reading the journal, only four entries remained, and all were dated from the week leading up to the deaths.

_Freddy and I have been talking some, and I think it's possible that we can be friends again. I'm glad about that. I really kind of missed him. Not like in a loving way, but I missed talking to him. So I'm going to keep talking to him._

Today, Summer was out trying to pick dates for an upcoming tour, the on that will promote our new album. If there ever will be a new album. Zack and Dewey are stretched really thin. But anyways, Summer was out and I needed to get some credit card bills that she was keeping for me. So I went into her room and the filing cabinet was open. Inside were all her usual things, like credit card bills, which was what I was looking for. And so I was looking for my bills when I found this bill for an abortion!

And then I remembered how Summer had been gone that one day and how she had been acting weird, and figured it out: Summer had an abortion! I don't know who the father was and I don't think anyone will ever know. But I better not let her know that I know. She would do something really evil, like kick me out of the band.

-Katie

Claire was surprised that Katie had known about the abortion and eagerly flipped to the next page. It was dated as three days before the deaths.

_Zack and Dewey had the hugest fight ever today! They were screaming at each other, and throwing stuff at each other! Zack even took Dewey's newest guitar, and smashed it into an amp. Totally Pete Townshend! If I hadn't known them, and if I'd just seen it happen on TV, the whole guitar smashing thing, I would've thought it was awesome. But it wasn't._

After Zack ruined the guitar Dewey looked too mad and surprised to speak. He went to his room and slammed the door, leaving Zack standing there staring at the remnants of guitar in his hands. I heard him mutter, "I'd hoped it wouldn't come to this." And then he took Summer aside and told her something.

She started screaming and yelling at him, telling him that he was pulling the band apart, and then she stormed out of the house and got in her car and took off.

And while all of this was happening, Alicia was totally high. Like skyrocketing. She seriously could've O. D.'d. She was cracking up while all the fighting was going on. She's such a bitch.

Anyways, Zack went up to his room, so I followed him to try and calm him down. When I got to his room I walked in and he was throwing things into two duffel bags. I asked him what he was doing and he told me that he was leaving. He said he couldn't take being near Dewey anymore.

I felt really bad for him, because he's like the heart and soul of this band and he's pretty much being kicked out. He said that eh told Summer that he was leaving and that's why she flipped. By this time I felt really bad, so I helped him pack up.

I'm really gonna miss him, he's so awesome. He's going to leave within the week.

-Katie

Claire turned the page to an entry marked two days before the deaths. It was short.

_I can't write much now, but Summer came back and she was freaking out. She was yelling at everybody, saying all this crazy stuff, how she knew what we were thinking. It kind of scared me. So I built this little drawer thing into my desk to my journal in. It's cool because it reminds me of my favorite Doors song, Break On Through To The Other Side._

-Katie

Claire realized that it could've been Katie who had written the note that had been found on the coffee table. She found the evidence bag containing the note and examined the writing. Holding the paper up to the journal, she could clearly tell that the writing matched up. "Maybe she was trying to tell us to read her journal," Claire muttered to herself. Then she flipped the page to read the last journal entry, dated the day before the deaths.

_Zack is leaving tomorrow night. Me and him are going to pretend that we're going out to dinner, and then I'm going to see him off at the airport. He's going to California. And because he's leaving, Dewey will be the only songwriter in the band._

Since Dewey's the only songwriter, and the new album is due out soon, I brought him some songs that I wrote. He totally blew up at me, screaming that he didn't need any help with writing. He was totally drunk.

Everything's getting really tense around here. I'm starting to think that everybody living in the same house was a really bad idea. Summer's been smiling weirdly, it's kind of freaking me out. And Alicia being eternally high isn't helping either. Everything is so stressful for me right now.

I was listening to Quadrophenia today. It's probably one of the greatest albums ever. The best part is the last song, Love Reign O'er Me. What a moving song! It just blows my mind every time I hear it. It's like my daily thing, to listen to it. Yeah, that's kind of random, don't know why I wrote it down.

-Katie

Claire closed the journal. She got up from the couch that she'd been sitting on and started working on her theory of death. She sorted through the pictures, finding certain ones that she kept. Those photos were taken to a photo lab and blown up, and then Claire went to a drug store and bought some paper cups. Driving back to the mansion, she listened to School of Rock's first CD while she went over her theory again and again in her mind.

-I know this chapter wasn't as good as some of the others, but I'd appreciate reviews anyways.-

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	6. Solving The Case

-I am really pissed right now at my one reviewer for last chapter, and by the fact that I only got one review. Firstly, to my reviewer: you are such a moron! I said that I wasn�t freaking out that I didn�t get any reviews, I just wanted to know if anyone was reading my story! Apparently no one is, but since this will be the last chapter, I�m finishing it. Anyways, to my stupid reviewer: I�ve never gotten a lot of reviews, and the story that I think is my very best received only 9 reviews. I didn�t complain. So you can shut up until you know what you�re talking about.-

The sun was starting to set on the School of Rock mansion, and Claire was getting ready to present her theory to her boss and co workers. She had set up an easel and placed pictures on it, and even had a pointer. But before presenting any information, she poured everyone a cup of water.

Then she took her pointer and pointed to her first picture, which showed the scene of all the members of School of Rock dead on the living room floor.

�If you look at this picture, you�ll see that everyone is holding their cup,� Claire said, pointing to the cups in the picture, �And they�re all holding their cups the same way, which means that someone must have placed the cups in their hands. By that someone I mean the killer.�

�But,� said a back up detective named Jill, �If it were a mass suicide then they�d all be holding their cups the same way as like, a motif or something.�

�That�s a good point. But look at your cups that I gave you. None of you are holding them anymore, you put them down on the table or threw them away.�

Jill spoke up again. �If it were a mass suicide they would all just keep their cups and lay down and die. So both of the stories have validity. We need evidence to prove that one story is true.�

Claire frowned. She was still convinced that the band had not committed suicide. Why would Zack kill himself just as he was about to leave? Why would Katie kill herself when she was about to seriously start working on songwriting? Claire was convinced that there was some piece to the puzzle that she was missing, something that was just beyond her reach.

Her boss cut into her thoughts. �Hey Claire, you better come up with some solution and quick, I don�t wanna be here all night.�

She needed something now. Some bit of evidence that would prove her theory to be true. But what could she use? There was nothing found in the rooms that could be used to prove her theory. There were only two things found in the living room, the note and...

�The cups!� Claire yelled aloud, surprising everybody. �What?� her boss barked.

�The cups! We still have them, right?�

Jill nodded her head and Claire continued speaking. �The cups can be tested for fingerprints. If my theory is correct, there will be two pairs of fingerprints on each cup, plus an extra pair for the killer. If the other theory is correct, then there will be only one pair of fingerprints.�

�What if the killer, if there is one, used gloves?� asked one back up detective.

�Then we don�t know who the killer is. But we do know that the School of Rock was killed. Now, I want those cups sent to the lab immediately!�

The back up detectives filed out of the room, as did Claire�s boss. Claire was tired, but hungry, so she left the house and got into her car. She stopped at a Mc Donald�s and got some Chicken Mc Nuggets, and then went to a news stand and got a news paper.

There was an article on the front page about the School of Rock deaths. So far, the only thing the new knew about the deaths was that they had happened and that an investigation was underway. Luckily, when the paparazzi finally did find out all the details, Claire wouldn�t have to give them. That would be the job of a publicist.

Claire ate her food on the way back to the mansion, and then she slept on the couch for the second night in a row.

In the morning, she woke up and took a shower, then went to find her back up detectives. They were all in the huge dining room, talking avidly. Jill was holding an envelope. When they saw Claire, everyone quieted down. �The results are back,� Jill said, �We wanted to let you open the envelope.�

Jill handed Claire the envelope. Claire�s hands shook as she opened it and pulled out one sheet of paper. She read it aloud to the group.

�Two pairs of fingerprints were found on every cup! Aha, you were wrong, and I was right!�

�We still don�t know who the killer is,� Jill commented, �Keep reading.�

�Two pairs of fingerprints were found on every cup except one. The one had only one set of fingerprints. The prints on the cup matched with those of Summer Hathaway.�

Claire was shocked that it was Summer. But she overcame it and called her boss, telling him the good news about solving the case. He was happy for her, and told her that she could go home now, that the back ups would tie up all the loose ends.

She took one last look around the School of Rock mansion, and then gathered the few things she had brought and put them in her car. Claire drove back into the city, back to her normal life where she didn�t have to find out how dead rock stars had died.

Her apartment was just as she�d left it. She put a School of Rock CD in her stereo and sat down on her couch. �So I guess that�s it,� se said to herself.

-I know this chapter was short, and that the ending wasn�t all that great, but please tell me if you liked it or not!-


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